University of Oregon releases new report on restoration jobs.

The Ecosystem Workforce Program at the University of Oregon just released three new reports about jobs related to forest AND watershed restoration. (There are two versions of each report, all available at the link above.)

Their in-depth study affirms many of the job numbers that we have used to date regarding job creation through watershed restoration.  For example, previous studies have found that road reclamation provides about 14.5 direct jobs per million spent.  The U of O study found that overall forest and watershed restoration contracting results in 15.7 to 23.8 jobs per million depending on the specific project.   The data is specific to the state of OR, but is consistent with the type of information released in a report on Montana's restoration economy by the state of MT in the fall of 2009.

According to the U of O report, restoring fish passage by fixing culverts, for example, creates 15.2 jobs per million, with an additional output multipler of 1.8 – 2.3 (meaning that the money invested recirculates through the economy an additional 1.8 -2.3 times.

The report overview includes the following findings: 

In Oregon, forest and watershed restoration makes up only a fraction of economic activity in natural resource sectors. Payroll for forestry, fishing, agriculture, and supporting activities in 2007 alone was nearly $450 million.3  In conservative terms, the total investment in of restoration projects in Oregon between 1995 and 2007 was about $500 million.4 Nonetheless, our analysis of the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds indicated OWEB [OR Watershed Enhancement Board] investments alone supported nearly 2,700 jobs or about 230 jobs per year. If distributed evenly across the state, this equates to nearly seven jobs per county per year, or potentially one to two small businesses per county.

Our study suggests that forest and watershed restoration has a similar impact on employment as other public infrastructure investments. …

These new reports will be a great addition to the discussion about how watershed restoration can provide green jobs in rural economies.  For more information on the general topics of the restoration economy and how this can help create jobs and restore the natural environment, please see Wildlands CPR’s Political Economy of Watershed Restoration series.  Published last fall, these reports provide an overview of some of the same topics covered in-depth in the reports released this week by the University of Oregon. 

Footnotes associated with the excerpt above:

3 US Bureau of the Census, County Business Patterns. Available online [URL]: http://www.census.gov/ (accessed April 5, 2010).
4 Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, Oregon Plan biennial report 2007-2009 (Salem, Oregon: Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board, 2008).